Exploit Your Strengths

When I was working with the Ministry for Children and Families, I had the opportunity to interact with a number of different social workers - something that taught me a great deal about inherent vs. learned abilities. You see, all of these people had a degree in social work - but a shocking number of them still couldn't relate to the kids they were trying to help. I'd sit there in meetings, and watch them talk to the kids, sounding like they were reciting the script from a textbook and the whole while I'd be seeing the kids' eyes glaze over. To make matters worse - the social workers themselves wouldn't pick up on it, and they'd just keep rolling on with their dictation. It was painful.

Meanwhile, there were co-workers I had that came from all varied backgrounds - history degrees, one was a relief firefighter, and so on... people with no formal education in counseling. But they could connect with the kids from the moment they walked in the door - they'd relate to them, treat them with respect and, ultimately, earn their trust.

The point is - there are inherent talents that we are born with, and there are learned abilities, and we all have a ceiling of potential that we reach. The example above highlights what I'm talking about - perhaps some other examples would be Wayne Gretzky, Michael Phelps or Tiger Woods. How many parents, suffering delusions of grandeur, put their children through the same training protocols that Wayne, Michael or Tiger went through? And how many people have reach their level of success? No one so far... and no amount of training will do so without a natural gift.

The best thing we can all do for ourselves is learn how to use our strengths to our greatest advantage - whether it's in a career, our physical endeavors or our personal lives. Don't misunderstand this to mean I believe we should ignore our weaknesses - we should work to improve these every single day. However - the better we learn to develop, and then to utilize, our strengths the faster and higher we can go.

~Guy